Warriors’ Joe Lacob, Bob Myers Take a Real Risk Firing Mark Jackson

Wherever the Warriors are — in a month, a year, three years — this will be the starting point. For this was the day Warriors management tempted fate.

The Warriors fired Mark Jackson, the architect of the franchise’s rare success on the court. After three years of building a cohesive locker room, crafting a top-ranked defense and molding Stephen Curry into a top-10 player, Jackson was shown the door Tuesday.

Warriors management is now at a critical juncture. The upward trajectory of this franchise is now in jeopardy. The Warriors are looking to build a new arena, in a new city, with a newly energized fan base. And all that is virtually on the line if this decision comes back to bite them.

And make no mistake about it, this crossroads is courtesy of co-owner Joe Lacob and general manager Bob Myers. The very people who resurrected this franchise now have it spinning on their finger while tap-dancing on a cliff.

They took a risk by handing his team over to a former player who had never coached on any level. And though it worked, for every reason Lacob and Myers thought it would, they took a bigger risk firing him not even three years later.

They looked at 98 wins in two seasons, the most in consecutive seasons since the early 1990s, and said it wasn’t enough. Jackson racked up nine postseason victories in three years — the only Warriors coach to do so other than Al Attles — with a great chance for more. Yet management sent him packing in search of even better.

“I would say it’s less based on performance that is win-loss record,” Lacob said, “and perhaps slightly more based on overall philosophy.”

As much as you can respect their audacity, this is the kind of logic that reminds you of the very years the Mark Jackson era helped you forget. If it works, Lacob and Myers are geniuses, gutsy visionaries. If it doesn’t, and the Warriors end up looking for another coach not too long from now, they become in-the-way managers holding the team back.

They will have no shortage of head coaching candidates to choose from as any team with Curry is a desirable job. But the pressure is on them to pick the right guy. A step back would reek of yesteryear’s blunders.

That’s what the Warriors are risking — becoming the same ol’ Warriors. The franchise that can’t get out of its own way. That makes a habit of grabbing success long enough just to drop it.

Once again, basketball fans around the country are looking at this franchise scratching their heads. Once again, they have frustrated their players with unpopular decisions, maybe even tampering with chemistry.

Once again, they’re starting over. Because what they had wasn’t good enough.

“We said we wanted to be better than we were last year,” Lacob said, “and a reasonable expectation for better is to be in the top four. And to obviously have home-court advantage.

“You have to understand that going forward,” Lacob explained, “there may be a different task or a different goal than there was in the last three years.”

The Warriors have been here before. More times than not, they come away with egg on their face.

When they traded Mitch Richmond, now a Hall of Famer, to Sacramento for Billy Owens. When they shipped Chris Webber to Washington. When they drafted Todd Fuller over Kobe Bryant. When they replaced Eric Musselman with Mike Montgomery. When they broke up “We Believe” by trading Jason Richardson and not signing Baron Davis.

Now, Lacob and Myers might be joining the Warriors’ rich history of bad decisions. Because in their quest for offense, they might lose the defense necessary to win. In their search for submissiveness, they might get a coach who can’t lead through adversity.

In their hunt for a philosophy they prefer, they could lose the team chemistry on which they have thrived.

That’s a hard pill to swallow. This is different than failing to win. This is winning, then taking your earnings and putting them back on the roulette table.

If this doesn’t work, all the favor Lacob, Myers and co-owner Peter Guber have garnered will be squandered. If the next coach — Steve Kerr or Stan Van Gundy or whoever wins them over — doesn’t exceed what Mark Jackson did, it will set the franchise back considerably.

And we will look back at this day as when the demise started.

Marcus Thompson

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Blah blah blah. Do you pay attention at all to the problems they had dealing with Jackson? And he’s performed pretty much as an average coach would perform with the rosters he had. Don’t go giving him the credit for what the players are doing without taking a good look at how he held them back with his lack of preparation and pedestrian offense and bizarre substitution patterns. He’s not going to be hard to replace with something better.

Wow, “The architect of the franchise’s rare success on the court. After three
years of building a cohesive locker room, crafting a top-ranked defense”

I highly disagree with this MT2. He was no architect. He made no decision on the moves to bring the players that came in. He didn’t craft this defense, Lacob and Myers crafted it by bringing in Bogut, Andre Iguodala, and Klay. Mark Jackson did none of that. Bogut was already an elite defender before coming here, Mark didn’t craft him. Andre Iguodala was an Olympian because of his defense, Mark didn’t craft him. Don’t pump MJ up to more than he is. A coach that took one of the most talented rosters in the NBA, and took them to a 2nd, then a 1st round playoff exit. A coach who can’t develop young players at all (and before we say Draymond Green, he was a 4 year player at MSU. Klay was a 3 year star in the Pac-12), Barnes, the one truly young player, has regressed hard, especially this season due to MJ’s lack of recognizing that Barnes is a finisher around good players, not a starter around bad ones.

Grey Warden

Would Iguodala have wanted to come to the Warriors if Mark Jackson wasn’t here?

Thompson was an average defender during his rookie year.

Barnes thinks of two moves (either a jumpshot or drives to his left) and goes for it, despite what the defender gives him. Can’t teach instinct if the guy doesn’t have it.

Maybe we should blame Mark Jackson for stunting Nedovic and Kuzmic as well while we’re at it.

Benjamin Dover

According to people inside the club Mark Jackson didn’t even want Andre Iguodala here. He wanted to keep Landry and Jack… so I am not sure Jackson had much to do with it at all.

Iggy wanted to come here years ago because his business interests are in San Fran.

mko0lpmko0lp .

As BD noted, Jackson didn’t want Iguodala. His reason for coming was money. If there was another factor, it would be his relationship to Steph.

Thompson’s improvement is natural for a young player. Especially the first 3 years in the league. Draymond falls under this group. If anything, Barnes is in the minority – it’s not often that a young player gets worse in year 2.

The defense improved b/c of the roster changes. They were actually worse relative to the league under MJ in 2011-12 than they were with Keith Smart in 2010-11. Albeit by one spot (from 26th to 27th).

offense was too reliant on Curry. in the 2012-13 playoffs, they were 5-2 when Curry made at least 4 3’s / over 40% (and really should have been 6-1, if not for game 1 vs the Spurs) while being 1-4 in games where he shot poorly (33% or less) / 3 3’s or less. the 1 win was thanks to Klay going 8 for 9 from 3.

offensive efficiency within 1 point puts them close to 3 teams. Dubs have too much talent to be behind the Knicks and just ahead of the Pelicans and Nets. why did they underachieve?

For starters, look at the per 36 minute assist ratios of Jordan Crawford and Toney Douglas. JC under Brad Stevens 6.7 to 2.5. Under MJ, 3.1 to 2.7. Toney Douglas under MJ 2.6 to 2.2. Under Spoelstra, 4.3 to 1.6.

Spoelstra and Stevens run structured systems instead of the ‘i believe in you so do whatever you want’ system that MJ runs. Watch a game on league pass of JC on the Celtics under Stevens… completely different player.

MJ did not have a good understanding of what Jordan Crawford does well. He just let him do whatever he wanted.

MJ’s fanboys point to Curry, but that has more to do with Monta Ellis being traded and his volume going up.

Can’t speak to the locker room atmosphere. Was it really that bad under Smart? If memory serves, all the reports stated that Smart was well-liked, even by Curry.

teams often take on the persona of their head coach. this team was sloppy/chaotic. too often they reached-in, set poor screens resulting in fouls, turned the ball over and had role players taking irrational shots they had no business taking.

Rob L

Iggy got OVERPAID by Warriors, thats why he can to the Dubs. Sacramento made offer to Iggy and retracked the offer the next day, Iggy got bigger offer from Warriors and playing with better players, It wasnt Mark Jackson..

Even best defenders in College would be average to decent in the rookie year in NBA.. Mark Jackson was a slow ass point guard, MJ didnt know shite defense, It was Mike Malone and Kobe that encouraged Thompson he had potiential to play Defense.

Barnes played with shittiesterest bench in the NBA, thats why he regressed. Barnes when playing with starters excelled because Klay and Curry spread the floor for him to drive the ball…

Mark Jackson had little offense strategies, All we saw was fast break, and pull up for a three point shot even when 3-4 other warriors was still behind in their own court with NO chance of rebounding off a miss.. It was bull crap..

And finally after Mike Malone left Mark Jackson was too ignorant to know he needed knowledgeable assistant coaches, instead he got bullcrap coaches that recorded meetings that he had to fire..

Total Package

Yeah I can’t give Jackson credit for the defense. Credit goes to Bogut, Iggy, Draymond and Thompson for the way they defend… and all of them apart from say Thompson learnt their craft before they got to Jackson.

The defense was ranked worst in the league with Jackson as coach… without Bogut, Iggy and Draymond.

When Bogut arrived the defense improved immensely… as Denver found out in the playoffs… but the perimeter defense was horrid. Enter Iggy this year… Between Iggy and Thompson we now had all bases covered and became a top 5 defensive team.

That wans’t Jackson though… that was very good hirings by Lacob and Myers.

G-sus

It must be God’s will that MJ got fired, right? I certainly won’t miss his bible thumping! we need a coach who can draw up a play that doesn’t involve Steph throwing up prayers form way downtown (even though he does make an amazingly high percentage of them). Maybe a Van Gundy or Kerr will be able to make the adjustments out of the locker room so that we can stop imploding in the 3rd quarter when it counts!

I am disappointed, and find it almost ludicrous that you suggest the active, engaged present ownership can be remotely compared to the “bad old Cohan days”. You’re sharper than that MT2.

S_L

I can not believe there is some MJs haters are out there after 3 best years of my 20+years existence as GSW fan !
Or, may be it simply comes from Bob himself? (I’m not joking – it’s too suspicious. Michael Chan, are you really Lacob/Mayers?)

Mark is by far the most important part of Warriors success.
Defensive team is the most difficult type to create!
RunNgun requires players talent only. Pop was correct answering question “What did he learn from his years with Nelson?” His answer was one word “NOTHING”.
Basically, you might have all pieces but without the whole team knowing what to do and being ready to sacrifice (that is called “chemistry”) there will be no defensive-minded team.
Mark was loved by players FOR A REASON! That reason was – he (again – he = Mark Jackson) was the one who created defensive-minded GSW.
In my world, that office’s quality faded out in a moment, and I have couple names for them:
1) GSI (“Golden State Idiots”)
2) DSW( “Dumb State Warriors”)
Please pick yours or propose another one 🙂

Benjamin Dover

He held us back. It is mind numbing that people cannot see that. Defense is all about effort… you don’t need choose a coach for that. Andrew Bogut was the defensive coach on the floor and told everyone where to move and who to pick up. The defense was the worst in the league in Jackson’s first year…. so how do you reconcile that? Is it just a coincidence that the defense started when Bogut and Green turned up?

Offense is all about talent and structure. We had the talent in Offense… we just had no structure whatsoever.

Rob L

I agree with you 100% Benjamin. Mike Malone the assistant coach was a defensive specialist who played a big part in Warriors defensive reputation..

Its not really mind numbing that people dont see it because they dont know or havent played basketball. Thease average fans just see wins and loses or when new coach come in, they dont connect all the factors because they dont understand the game..

For example, Jackson first year was a complete failure after he promised playoffs. His 2nd and 3rd was good and why is that??? Well because they got bogut, and amazing draft in barnes, Ezeli and Green, than Klay and Curry known for their shooting in college got comfortable playing with each other..

Jackson’s little to no knowledge of offensive half court sets was hindering Dubs, all he wanted was rebound and run or isolate postup plays for NON post up players.. LOL Jackson was horrible, with another coach warriors would have been 3rd or 4th seed..

Rob L

SL you dont know what you are talking about.. Mark Jackson promised making to the playoffs the first year he came in and instead Warriors was the same as usual which was a crappy team… Mark Jackson BECAME a good coach with management got him the all star players NOT because he is a good coach..

Remember, first year Jackson coached the warriors they sucked even when Curry, Monte and Klay was on the team.. That same year after realizing the team sucked and would NOT make it to the playoffs as Jackson loud mouthly promised the Warriors traded for ALL star DEFENSIVE center in Bogut..

Than upper management hit the JACKPOT in the pottery pick with Barnes, festus and green all came from winning programs..And Curry got new contract while Dubs shipped ball hog Ellis OUT..

And finally Iggy came to town because Dubs management team made great deals getting ride of shitty contracts and overpaid Iggy..

NOW look at the team Warriors management put together WITHOUT MJ doing shite, Bogut, Lee, IGGY, KLAY and CURRY.. With that starting lineup and help of defensive specialist assistant coach Mike Malone, the Warriors made noise.. BTW my DOG could have coached that team with Mike Malone by his side… Mark Jackson is trash..